Commonly known portable lighting devices, such as flashlights, typically use one or more batteries to provide the voltage necessary to the working of the lighting elements housed therein. However, the lifetime of the batteries is shortened by continuous use, resulting in the device becoming unworkable unless the batteries are changed or recharged. Still, used batteries are known to cause environmental pollutions when not properly disposed of and rechargeable batteries can typically only be recharged a limited number of times, in addition to requiring an external power source for recharging. It is therefore desirable to provide a system for self-powering the lighting device once one or more batteries run short, thus ensuring that the device remains workable despite some of the batteries being drained.
The prior art teaches a plurality of manually operated electrical power sources, which can be used with portable lighting devices for recharging the battery power source of the device or powering the latter when the batteries are drained. For example, a generator may be mounted within the battery compartment of the device and operated by traction, rotary motion, or the like to generate electrical energy for powering the device. A drawback of these systems however is that they use complicated power assemblies and are typically permanently installed within the battery compartment, thus not providing a convenient way to remove the generator if desired.
What is therefore needed, and an object of the present invention, is a generator, which can be easily and removably positioned within the battery compartment of a conventional lighting device for powering the device without battery power or in compensation for a drained battery.